Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/61

Rh He knew a glorious lie meant death,

But looked the Captain in the eye

And said, "Nay, none are there, or nigh."

The conclusion of my story

Comes from a letter amatory,

Which one Fritz, in school-boy hand,

Wrote Gretchen in the Fatherland.

"Wouldst believe it, Gretchen, that boy lied;

The little traitor! he defied

Our Kaiser and the German race!

Dear me! that thoughts so black and base

Should harbor in so sweet a face!"

And then Fritz told in close detail,

With many an expletive and wail,

How his company was mauled

By Belgian guns. What else he scrawled,

I spare the reader, both his fight

And courtship. He concludes:

"That night

We stood that boy against a wall,—

It was a church, as I recall.

He would not let us bind his eyes

Or tie his hands. We looked for cries,

For tears and pleadings for reprieve;

But not a word said he, save 'Vive

La Belgique!' Now could mind conceive